In normal use, a skid-steer loader has a loader bucket pivotally attached to two front lift arms. Optionally, the loader bucket of a skid-steer loader may be removed and alternate or auxiliary implements such as a microtrencher may be attached to cut a trench in hard surfaces such as pavement surfaces of concrete or asphalt such as in roads, bridges or parking lots. A microtrench slot may be cut for instance with a radial saw, and may commonly have a depth in a range between approximately four to twelve inches. Microtrenches are often created and then wires or cables such as fiber optic cables are placed in the bottom of the trench. The trench is then filled with a sealant over the installed wires or cables.
The sealant may match or may be a different material from the prior surface material. For example, the sealant media may be a cold asphalt material or alternately may be formed using hot polymer, elasto-polymer or grout. Further, the sealant material has to be flexible enough to cope with corners on the route, crush resistant and sufficiently tough to cope with the pressure of the roadway above, which can reach 2900 psi. In certain situations, the microtrench must be dry and debris and dust free before the sealant can be installed in a manner which will properly bond with the inner microtrench sides and the surrounding surface material.
A currently common apparatus for cutting a microtrench uses a radial cutting saw mounted to the rear of a trenching machine. A substantial majority of the spoil from the cutting process remains in and immediately adjacent the cut. The spoil is a combination of debris and dust. Compressed air can be used to move the spoil, but that merely spreads the debris and dust over a larger area. To remove the debris and dust, in some arrangements a vacuum system is used consisting of a long hose with a nozzle wider than the trench placed above the trench and a large dedicated vacuum truck which immediately follows the trenching machine during use. In practice this is expensive and requires a large amount of space due to the presence of two different primary mover trucks/machines. This work is often done on roadways, which can cause traffic control problems. In practice, this arrangement often does not work well to remove the spoil because of the long distance that the heavy asphalt material must travel and the height to which the debris must be lifted in order to reach the vacuum truck collector.